Page 7

Xavier

The next morning, I linger outside the faculty building, raking leaves as the sun rises in the distance.

Classes start soon, which doesn’t leave me long to snoop in the faculty office.

Usually, the teachers leave the dorms, stop by the dining room for breakfast, and pick up supplies from the faculty building before heading to their classes.

I’ve spent thirty minutes here, more than enough time to rake the few leaves beneath a towering oak. The head gardener briefly pulled me away to deal with a fallen branch before I returned to drag out this task.

After casting a subtle glance at the quad, I deliver a solid kick to the oak.

Orange leaves flutter to the ground, buying me more time to linger.

My pile of leaves grows as I nod at a teacher leaving the building, the door slamming shut behind them. I keep raking until I’ve lost sight of him.

I give my tree another solid kick. A woman yelps as leaves shower down on me, and I look up, dropping my rake in time to catch a petite redhead with a black sooty mark on her cheek.

Delilah Farrow.

I grin at her. “Ah, I thought you might be a squirrel.”

“Well, I’m not a squirrel.” She wriggles in my arms, her slim, freckled legs distracting me in her short plaid skirt. “I appreciate the catch, but you can let me down now.”

She smells good, but I’m not interested in her perfume. I want to know what she really smells like.

Making sure the coast is clear, I move around the tree to keep us out of sight while we carry on with this conversation. “And what if I don’t want to put you down?"

“I have class.” She peers over my shoulder.

“Surely you can miss class….” I pretend I don’t know her name.

“Della,” she says, distracted. Her mouth snaps shut and her eyes dart to me as she flashes me an insincere smile. “Delilah. Some people call me Della, but it’s Delilah.”

I hide my smile. Something tells me she just slipped up and gave me a real name instead of a fake. Interesting. What is she doing here, and why does she need a fake name to do it?

“How about we get out of here?” I purr.

Vincent and Levi have struck out in convincing her to leave.

My turn.

She’s too busy peering over my shoulder to notice my hooded eyes. “Can you put me down? I have class now.”

“Or you could have dinner with me, maybe even dessert?”

She wrenches her gaze back to me. “ Dinner ?”

I wink. “A date.”

Her brows knit together. “But I’m a student.”

Alarm rocks through me. “You’re over eighteen, right?”

She’s a senior, so she has to be, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check these things. Fuck. I should have checked it before I mentioned wanting to take her to dinner.

“I’m nineteen,” she says, peeking over her shoulder.

Something small and hard pokes me in the chest. Before I can figure out what it is, she’s wriggling again.

“No reason we can’t get to know each other a little better.”

She blinks at me. “Please put me down.”

“Or I could take you to Paris?”

She stares at me as if the world just lost all meaning. “You want to take me to Paris ? A complete stranger?”

I lick my lips as my gaze dips to her breasts. “We’d leave as strangers, but we would definitely return as friends.”

She pats my arm. “I appreciate the offer. It’s sweet, but I have stuff to do.”

I raise my eyebrow. “Did you just pat my arm?”

She snatches her hand back. “I’m sure you’re nice, but you’re not really my type.”

Not just friend-zoned. Outright rejected.

I was flirting to get her to leave, so I’m not sure why it bothers me so much that she wants nothing to do with me.

The sound of raised voices drifts from behind me. Delilah’s eyes dip over my shoulder, and she pushes on my chest. “I have to go.”

I reluctantly let her go.

This seduction has fallen completely flat.

I make one last attempt. “Maybe we could…”

“Uh, huh. Sure. I’ll call you.” She doesn’t look back, sprinting from tree to tree until I’ve lost sight of her.

“Damn.” I scratch my beard, hoping I haven’t lost my touch.

I grab my rake as raised voices from the faculty building catch my attention. Ms. Arkwright strides across the quad, her face like thunder.

“What is it?” she demands as a teacher emerges from the building, wringing his hands.

“Someone glued all the doors shut,” he explains. “I couldn’t get into my office.”

Head down, I smile as I listen in.

Delilah Farrow, or Della, whatever your name is, my brother was right. You are a menace.

“ Glued ?” Ms. Arkwright repeats.

“We’re going to have to take the doors off their hinges.”

Had to get to class. I mentally snort. More like get clean away fast.

I have no clue why she’s doing all this, but I can’t say it isn’t fun to witness the fallout. Like setting a cat among a pen of chickens. Delilah Farrow is that cat, and she is flustering all these teachers like no one’s business.

“Clearly, a student has played a practical joke. You!”

I keep raking, hoping she’s not talking to me.

“ You !” The sharp click of angry footsteps moves toward me.

I lift my head, pasting a bored expression on my face.

She frowns. “You didn’t notice any students causing trouble, did you?”

I recall the pretty beta. “Just the usual comings and goings. A squirrel or two. That’s all.”

She swings away, already forgetting I exist. “Get those doors open. We’ll have a school meeting and get to the bottom of this mischief.”

With the opportunity to snoop ruined by a beta super-gluing doors shut, I make a quick trip to the gardener's shed to gather bags so I can dispose of my raked leaves.

“I take it from the commotion that Delilah is not right this second preparing for a date with you?” Levi’s voice comes from the tree beside me.

I subtly glance over my shoulder.

He stands with his back to me, arms folded, leaning against the tree as if he’s taking a break to enjoy nature.

I resume bagging leaves. “She glued the teachers' office doors shut.”

Silence.

I can feel his confusion from here.

“Why?”

I sigh. “I have no fucking idea. She wasn’t interested in a date. Wasn’t even interested in Paris.”

“ Paris ?”

“She wasn’t taking the bait. I had to make it juicier. She patted my arm, said it was sweet, but she had class. Oh, and that I wasn’t her type.”

A muffled snort of laughter drifts from around the tree. “She patted your arm?”

“That she did.”

“What class did she drop you for?” he asks.

“Didn’t ask. I was afraid she’d say science or something dry and boring. I had my ego bruised already. I wasn’t looking to have it stamped on.”

“It’s the beard.”

“The what?”

“You look like a hobo. No wonder she dumped your grizzly bear ass for class.”

“Grizzly ass, ha !” I scratch it. “It’s itchy.”

“So, shave it and you won’t have girls choose science lessons over a trip to Paris.”

“It’s a disguise and a good one. And I wouldn’t have actually taken her to Paris, you know.” I finish stuffing leaves into sacks and pick up my rake to return it to the tool shed.

“I was cruel to her,” Levi admits. “I thought it would be enough to chase her away.”

“But?”

“I found her practicing in the gym. Instead of chasing her away, I watched her spend thirty minutes practicing all the moves I used to humiliate her in front of her peers.”

I close the shed door and think about Delilah.

Vincent tried to get her to leave by making her feel small.

Instead, she has dug her heels in.

Why?

Why is a beta so determined to stay here ?

“I gave her a fencing lesson.”

I scowl at him. “We’re supposed to be convincing her to leave, not teaching her to beat us up.” I shake my head. “Bad enough she keeps trying to blow the school up. We don’t need to be putting a weapon in her hand and teaching her how to use it.”

He scrubs a hand over his hair. “Yeah.”

There’s a world of confusion in that yeah.

“Did something happen while you were teaching her how to handle your weapon?” I ask innocently.

He glares at me, a sign he didn’t miss my euphemism. “She was wearing a hoodie and took it off.” He’s silent for a beat. “She was just wearing a sports bra. I had to remind myself that she’s a student and I’m her teacher.”

I recall how good she’d felt in my arms, and I relate. Probably so does Vince.

My brother is used to getting what he wants. He’d tried to hide what had sounded suspiciously like jealousy when he grumbled about a male omega flirting with her, and later, of her flirting with the omega, knowing he was watching.

We should be chasing away the woman getting in the way of something we’ve wanted for so long. Yet here we are, all of us becoming increasingly fascinated and maybe a little bit obsessed.

She’s beautiful. Destructive. But…

“I like her,” I reluctantly admit, recalling her infectious grin after she nearly blew up the science building. “She’s like a cheerful little squirrel of destruction out to wreak havoc everywhere she goes.”

We’ve had our heads down, focused on the only goal that’s mattered to any of us for years, and it’s been so long since I looked up.

Since anyone made me want to look up. I guess it’s in all our interests to keep our eyes open with Delilah Farrow around to make sure she doesn’t blow us up.

She’s not my type either, but I can’t say she isn’t beautiful.

“Me too,” Levi says quietly.

“Mr. Tomaz. I was hoping to speak to you. Do you have a minute?” A woman calls out.

Levi straightens. “Sure. What do you need?”

Levi’s footsteps move away from me, and I resume my task, my mind sliding back to the troublemaking beta, the way it always seems to these days.